TONY JONES, PRESENTER: We're joined now by our Middle East correspondent Matt Brown, who's in Jerusalem.

Matt, there've been obviously protests in Cairo and Benghazi. Now these are spreading and we've seen protests in Tunisia and Yemen. What's your assessment of these events? Are they orchestrated in some way or spontaneous?

MATT BROWN, MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: They're definitely orchestrated, but they're drawing on a deep well of feeling in the public in those countries. I think the most significant new protest today probably is in Yemen, another country that's been through a political transition, another country with critical relations with the United States.

These extraordinary pictures of mobs scaling the front fence of the US embassy there, they set fire to at least five cars outside, smashed windows, set fire to something inside the embassy grounds. Security forces reportedly fired into the (audio problems), but amongst around 15 people injured, some of them reportedly injured by gunshot wounds before some sort of order was restored and they regained control.

And Tony, we've also seen protests in places like Iraq, more orderly protests than these protests in Yemen. But in Iraq you've had people in Baghdad and Basra, supporters of Shi'ite politicians voicing their opposition to this film. And as you've mentioned, ongoing protests in Egypt where we're seeing riot police clashing with protestors in the streets of Cairo in protests which have been backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, of course the party of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi.

TONY JONES: Yeah, the Muslim Brotherhood actually are calling for more days of protest and Morsi himself seems quite comfortable, at least you could say relaxed and comfortable about this anti-American expression.

MATT BROWN: Well he's put in a fairly interesting performance to date and certainly some Americans are very critical of it. What he said today is that the right to protest is guaranteed, and you'd expect that, given the change of power (audio problems) that led to it in Egypt. But he's also said that attacks on foreign embassies and the use of violence is unacceptable. And in that same statement he said he'd spoken to Barack Obama to ask Barack Obama to get this film, this video that (audio problems) so much anguish and so much offence to Muslims off the web. So, that's several days now after the US embassy was attacked in Cairo, after protestors scaled the fence, pulled down the American flag and ripped it to pieces in front of the cameras and hoisted the black banner of Islamic extremism.

TONY JONES: Yeah, this is going to be an increasingly difficult relationship for Obama to manage. Of course they give $2 billion worth of aid to Egypt, but now he's saying of Egypt, "We don't consider them an ally, yet we don't consider them an enemy." It's also very lukewarm.

MATT BROWN: It underlines an extraordinarily delicate balance in all of these relations. $2 billion in military aid. He's also said he's going to go for a billion dollars in debt forgiveness, forgiving a billion dollars in US debt owed by the Egyptians. There's still this question of the relationship between Egypt, the civilian leadership run now by the Muslim Brotherhood in the presidency and the relations with Israel. So, very trying times for Barack Obama and American commentators asking: what are they getting out of this significant support they've thrown behind civilian leadership in Egypt and indeed the way the Muslim Brotherhood has responded to that?

TONY JONES: Matt, what can you tell us about this rather lurid film which has sparked these protests all over the place?

MATT BROWN: That's another extraordinary tale. The perfect storm, if you like, of freedom of speech arguments inflaming religious sensibilities, extremist religious reactions and the internet age. This film, according to the Associated Press, was put out by a filmmaker called Sam Bacile, who told them that he was an Israeli Jew, a property developer living in California. They've investigated further and they've tracked down a man who is in fact a Coptic Christian living in California, a guy called Nakula Basili Nakule who's a fraudster, who's also been involved in the film and another guy who's a Christian hardline right-winger, if you like, a man who, according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, has trained Christian militias. All of - these two people involved in a film which somehow has been put up on the web, translated into Arabic so that Arabic-speaking Muslims can understand it and one that seems to have involved actors and actresses who have come out and said, "Hang on, we didn't agree to star in a film that denounced Islam and depicted the Prophet as a philanderer and a fool." So really an extraordinary tale there of obvious deliberate provocation and some pretty strange characters involved in producing it.

TONY JONES: Yeah, almost sort of satirical if it weren't so tragic. Thank you very much, Matt.